Small Town Romance Collection: Four Complete Romances & A New Novella

by Brown, Carolyn

  “Stop bellyachin’ about that.” I bit into a doughnut and made appreciative noises. “Lord, I do miss a good maple doughnut and no one makes them like our local bakery.”

  “Men do not belly ache or pout. You’re the one who has PMS, a bad temper and depressions, remember?” he reminded her. “I thought all women were like you but I’m finding out that one particular woman can be warm and friendly and caring.”

  “Well, marry her then.” I sipped my coffee and loved the way the flavor mixed with the maple sugar icing.

  I’ve always loved bantering with James. He’d been my best friend since kindergarten where he was the shortest child in class and I was the tallest. We went to college together where I majored in business and real estate and he majored in pre-law. I came home to Jefferson after four years and he went on to law school. I missed him and was ecstatic when he decided to take a job with a firm right there in our home town. Through the years he’s listened to my tales of pushy boyfriends, and I’ve listened to him moan about all women being turned off by short men.

  “I’m not ready to marry her but if I do propose, I’m not even going to tell you. I may not even let you be my best man,” he said testily.

  “Well, well, well.” I giggled. “If I can’t be your best man then I won’t let you be my maid-of-honor.”

  “Did you meet someone down there? You’re acting weird,” he asked.

  “I did not!” A vision of Rocky Rycroft running on the beach shot through my mind.

  “You’re lying,” James said. “I’m your best friend, remember. Since we were five years old. And even when you lied to your mother, you couldn’t lie to me. So ‘fess up, Jessie. What went on in Florida?”

  “Nothing.” I crossed my fingers behind my back. “I found Edward Rollin. Strange, biologically, my name is Rollin, but it doesn’t fit does it? Jessica Rollin. Nope, I’m just plain old Jessica Graham. He’s got a wife and a daughter who is giving him a granddaughter any day. And he sure doesn’t want a reminder of a big mistake he made all those years ago to come back into his life right now.”

  “I’m not surprised.” James propped his expensive shoes on the desk. He dusted the crumbs from the front of a western cut dark brown suit, tailored to fit his body. “It was a long time ago. He didn’t even know about you. Must be a helluva a shock. Would be if I’d been in his shoes.”

  “I guess so.” I checked for crumbs on my pale yellow silk blouse and matching floral skirt. “He thought I was there to blackmail him.”

  “Probably would have been my first idea, too,” James said. “I’d better get to the courthouse. I’m on for ten o’clock this morning. But this conversation is not over. I intend to know who made your brown eyes glitter like that.”

  I picked up another doughnut. “If you don’t show me yours, then you don’t get to see mine. And how do you know it’s just the maple doughnuts that makes me so happy?”

  “Because we are best friends.”

  I didn’t even try to get in the last word because he was right.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  In the middle of the morning, I looked up from my desk and saw an old friend of our family’s opening the door. “Hey, Fred, what are you doing in town when the sun’s out and you could be fishing?”

  “Coming to see the two prettiest women in the great state of Texas.” Fred chuckled, every wrinkle in his thin face deepening as his eyes sparkled. “Thought I might sell the farm.”

  Ashley stepped out of her office into mine. “I’ve been trying to buy that land for ten years, you old codger. Don’t come in here teasing me about selling it.”

  “Truth is…” He lowered his voice. “I come in here to tell you there’s a young whipper snapper staying out in the motel down south of town. Tall drink of water with dark hair and blue eyes. He’s running a brand new Ford Ranger truck with a Florida license plate. Got the numbers right here.” He pulled a match book from the bib of his overalls and handed it to me. “Came down to the reservoir and dropped your mother’s name. He thought he was bein’ real slick. I drove through town and checked all the motels since he said he didn’t have any relations around here, and there was his truck at the Jefferson Inn.”

  “Who is he and why would he ask about Mama?” Ashley asked.

  “Said his name was Rocky and he’s a good fisherman—knows his stuff about lures and bait. But I thought maybe you’d better know there was a stranger in town bringing up Linda’s name.”

  “Rocky?” Ashley frowned.

  “I met him when I was in Florida. He works with Edward Rollin,” I said.

  “Who is Edward Rollin?” Fred asked.

  “Another guy I met down there.” I sidestepped the issue.

  Thank goodness, Ashley didn’t push the issue.

  “Well, he seemed harmless. I guess he was just wanderin’ about you, Jessie. Does James know about him?”

  I patted Fred on the shoulder. “James and I don’t tell each other everything.”

  “Rocky said that he was goin’ back to the river this evenin’. Right up under the bridge,” Fred said.

  “Thanks for the heads up.” Ashley waited until he was completely out of the office before she popped her hands on her hips and gave me the same look that Mama did right before she started into a regular old southern hissy. I threw up both palms and took two steps back.

  “Who is this Rocky?” She asked.

  “He’s kind of like a junior partner with Edward. I can’t imagine why he’d drive up here but I will as soon as we close. I’ll get my fishin’ pole and I’ll call you tonight soon as I get home.” That seemed to take some of the steam out of her attitude.

  “Promise?”

  I crossed my heart with my finger. “Yes, I do promise that I will find out what in the devil that man is doing here and I will call you as soon as I know.”

  It was a quiet day at the agency so I left thirty minutes early, drove straight home, changed into faded jeans and an old T-shirt, found my lucky fishin’ hat and went straight to the bayou. I gathered up my tackle box, my rod and reel and a box of stink bait from the back of my truck.

  The Big Cypress Bayou produced pretty nice cat fish and some awesome bass. Maybe if I brought in a good haul, we’d have a fish fry at Ashley’s place over the next weekend. I laced a worm on the hook and sat down on the grassy bank to watch the red and white bobber.

  Rocky sat down beside me a few minutes later. “What are you doing here?”

  “This is my home, my bayou and I’m fishin’. I might ask you the same question, Mr. Rycroft.”

  “Fishin’,” Rocky smiled. “And it’s Rocky, not Mr. Rycroft. That makes me think my Uncle Jasper is close by. Got any good fishin’ tips.”

  “Fishin’ for cat, you might let it set there instead of reelin’ it in. Catfish lay on the bottom. They don’t get in a hurry about nothing. Just lay there and watch that worm, and just when you think they’re taking a nap, they grab the worm, hook, line and sinker. Now if you’re fishin’ for stripper, you might be doing it right. They like the chase,” she said. “Are you stalkin’ me?”

  “No, ma’am. I’m here because…” he hesitated.

  “Might as well spit it out. Did Edward send you?”

  “Kind of, but not really. Okay, here’s the deal.” He tossed his line out into the bayou. “Yesterday morning Edward called a meeting of the partners. He invited me because I was there when—well you know.”

  My bobber took a couple of dives but didn’t go under. Everything about him said that he didn’t want to be there—no, that wasn’t right. He held the rod and reel like he knew about fishing and liked it. What he didn’t want was to be there with me.

  “Go on,” I said.

  “Tamara had the baby that night after she talked to you. It was a girl and they named her Hannah. She came home the next day but she’s got a case of that depression that some women get and a guilt complex all tied up together. All she does is cry and nothing Edward or Eva can do will help. Tamara says
she’s been spoiled rotten all her life and you probably didn’t have anything. She’s got this big picture of a little orphan girl with a dirty face and barely enough to eat. Eva said that someone had to come up here to Texas to get a real picture of how things are and Tamara said that she would believe whatever I tell her because I’m kin folks.”

  “Edward should have told her that my mama was a business woman and that Ashley and I both had a good life. Why didn’t he?” The edge in my voice was noticeable even in my ears.

  “He did but she’s wants proof. If Tamara wanted the Hope Diamond, then Eva would start liquidating assets so she could put it in her hands. So I’ll spend a few days here and call Tamara every night. I’m glad that you decided to go fishin’ tonight so I can tell her that I talked to you.”

  The idea of someone snooping into my life and telling someone about it didn’t set well with me. “What are you going to tell her?”

  “That you like to fish,” he answered. “Tamara will get over all this depression before long according to her doctor. It could happen tomorrow or it might take a week. But I’m here until she’s happy.”

  Not one catty, hateful thing came to my mind. Deep down inside my heart, I hoped that it took several days, maybe even a couple of weeks until Tamara was happy again. I needed some time to figure out what it was about him that made me so angry and yet sent sparks flying around us every time we were together. I’d never felt that kind of thing before and the mixture of emotions was both scary and exhilarating.

  “You lived here your whole life?” He finally broke the silence.

  I glanced over at him. Our eyes locked and the electricity between us sizzled in the humid night air. I could tell him my life history right there and he’d report back to Tamara and possibly be gone the next day but I held my tongue and simply nodded.

  “Your mother?”

  “Was born down near Jeanerette, Louisiana but her father moved the family here when she was a little girl.” No harm in telling him Mama’s history.

  “Your grandparents still live here then?”

  “They’re both gone now. Died when I was in high school. How about my fraternal grandparents? Are they still living?”

  “Edward’s father died a couple of years ago with a heart attack. His mother went when I was in middle school. She had a heart attack, too.”

  Maybe my doctor had been right when he told me that I should begin to eat a heart healthy diet instead of living on junk food and doughnuts.

  “Does Edward have heart problems?” This could be a two way process. He could learn things about me and I could find out a few things about my biological father. Even thinking that sounded strange. It wasn’t like Mama got pregnant by visiting a clinic. She’d loved Edward, so much that she didn’t want to destroy his life, so Edward was my father.

  “He has blood pressure from the job stress but so far, so good on the heart problems. For the most part, he’s conscious of his diet. Eva sees to that. She’s a good woman and a good mother.”

  “Evenin’,” Fred appeared from the thick copse of trees near the bayou. “Are they bitin’.”

  “Had a few nibbles but nothing yet,” Rocky said. “Got any advice.”

  Fred sat down beside Rocky and tossed his line out into the bayou. “Don’t talk too loud. They’ll hear you and hide.”

  “Never heard that before,” Rocky said.

  “Shhhh, your bobber is dancing.” Fred pointed.

  None of them said a word until the bobber settled down.

  Fred shrugged. “Guess that catfish was just flirting with the worm.”

  Patience is the key to fishing. Mama loved the bayou and she loved to fish. We went several times a week and it always took all the stress from the day from my body and my mind. Breathing in the night air, listening to the tree frogs and letting all the cares of the world float down the Big Cypress usually calmed me right down. But that night it didn’t. I was on edge, wanting to know more about Rocky Rycroft and why fate, destiny or God had put him in my life.

  CHAPTER SIX

  I eat over at Ashley’s house a couple of times a week and I usually grab breakfast from the doughnut shop or a fast food place on the way to work in the morning. But after finding out about the heart problems in my genetic background, I decided that maybe I should make a trip to the grocery store that Saturday morning to buy food that was good for me. And maybe it was time to drag my running shoes out of the back of the closet and get back into the routine of at least a couple of miles a day.

  The apples looked good but then so did the bananas and the kiwis. I was trying to decide how much fresh fruit I’d eat before it went bad when Rocky turned the corner and bumped right into my cart.

  “Well, we meet again,” he grinned.

  “It’s a small town and this is the most popular grocery store. I figured you’d be eating out, not buying groceries.”

  “The motel has a small refrigerator and a microwave. It serves up a fine breakfast that I can’t resist but it’s so full of carbs and fat that I have to be careful at lunch and dinner,” he said. “I’m going to start jogging this evening. Want to join me and give me some tips on where to run?”

  “Sure.” How did that word get out of my mouth when what I meant to tell him was to dream on, that I was not interested in doing anything with him?

  “Meet you at your office at five then?”

  “I’ll meet you at the bayou bridge at five thirty.”

  “Deal.” He started to push his cart around mine.

  “So what’s the news on Tamara?”

  “She’s feeling better. I sent her pictures of your office and your house and your sisters. She’s stopped crying so that’s progress,” he said.

  Strange as it was, I didn’t feel like he was a stalker because he’d taken pictures. If it helped my half sister, then it didn’t upset me. Besides she would delete the pictures as soon as she’d looked at them.

  “That’s good.” I maneuvered my cart to the side.

  “What’s good?” James turned the corner and we had a cart jam right there in aisle four.

  Dammit! I didn’t want to deal with introductions but there wasn’t any way around it. “James, this is Rocky Rycroft, one of the employees at Edward Rollin’s business in Florida. Rocky, this is my best friend, James.”

  James stuck out his hand. “Right glad to meet you. What brings you to Jefferson?”

  “Fishing and doing a little bit of work for the bosses.” Rocky shook with him.

  James glanced at the cart half full of groceries. “Plannin’ on stayin’ a while?”

  “A week, maybe two,” Rocky said. “Do you fish?”

  “Sure I do. Jessie and I even cook on the banks of the bayou sometimes.” James answered.

  “Are you in the same business as Jessica?” Rocky asked.

  “No, I’m a lawyer. What do you do?”

  “I work at a mortgage company. We mainly do corporate loans and funding. I started out in pre-law but it kicked my butt pretty fast so I switched majors after the first year,” he answered.

  It was like two tom cats circling each other, trying to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of the other. My big cat, Peeta, would have been proud of James for not letting a tall, hunky guy intimidate him. But then I was pleased that Rocky treated James with respect.

  “Law school requires a lot of discipline and hours. I’m not sure I’d want to go through that again.” James backed his cart up to let Rocky go on by. “My new girlfriend and I are having a cookout tonight. Jessie will be there. Come on over and join us. Jessie knows the way. You can follow her or ride with her, either one. I grill a mean steak and Colleen makes a chocolate cake that an angel would give up her place in heaven for.”

  “Love to and thanks.” Rocky disappeared around the corner.

  “Now I know,” James whispered.

  “You rat! You could have asked me before you threw us together at one of your cookouts.” I glared at him. “I’d planned
to jog a couple of miles this evening.”

  “Too bad. Now you are going to eat steak and be nice to that guy who has rattled your nerves more than any one has ever done before,” James grinned.

  “I’m officially mad at you.”

  He patted my hand. “I know you as well as you know you. I’ve got to get this stuff home and things all ready for the party. And darlin’, you can’t stay mad at me for more than an hour so I’m not worried.”

  “You’d better be. Remember paybacks are a bitch and I’m going to visit with Colleen this evening.”

  “Remember that I’ll be having beers with Rocky. What goes around comes around.” He chuckled as he went on his merry way.

  Right then, I would have traded him for a hungry wolf as a best friend.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  I opened the closet door and slung one hanger after another from one end to the other, trying to find something to wear. When I’d called James to try to get out of going, he’d laughed and said to wear white to show off my new tan. When I called Ashley to report on the fishing trip the night before her mother instincts rose to the top and she felt sorry for Tamara. My world was tilted so far to the left that evening that I felt like I was about half drunk. I’d attributed the sparks when I was around Rocky the first few times as nothing more than nervous anger. Now I wondered if there hadn’t been chemistry there from the moment he stepped on the elevator with me.

  “You are not trying to impress anyone, Jessie.” I looked in the mirror and talked to my reflection. “The last time I got involved with a man was three years ago and James listened to me bawl and squall for days after the fool dropped me for another woman. Remember that and get past this attraction.”

  Was it fair to judge Rocky by that man? Probably not, but life was not fair—if it was, I would have known her father all these years. And besides, who said Rocky even felt the same vibes that I did. What I was experiencing was probably withdrawals from not dating or having a man to hold me in over a year. I’d get back into the dating pool and forget all about Rocky Rycroft’s sexy eyes and body—dammit! That picture of him running on the beach flashed through my mind. Now I needed a fan or some of Mama’s hot flash pills.